The Trump administration dismissed Loi McCleskey, San Francisco's Assistant Chief Immigration Judge, yesterday. This marks the seventh judge to be removed from San Francisco's immigration court panel this year. Four sources familiar with the matter informed Mission Local of the firing, which occurred via email.
Serving in a supervisory role and managing her caseload, McCleskey was responsible for overseeing San Francisco's immigration court judges. This position, Milli Atkinson from the San Francisco Bar Association said, ensured the smooth running of the courts. As per NBC Bay Area, Atkinson highlighted that the removal of McCleskey and the six other judges fired by the administration could lead to "further delays and inefficiencies at the court" amidst over a million pending asylum cases nationwide.
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University data relayed that McCleskey had a 70% success rate of granting asylum from 2019 to 2024. This figure, while above the national average, was considered middle-of-the-road compared to her recently ousted San Francisco peers. Shira Levine and Chloe S. Dillon, two judges who were also fired, had even higher rates of granting asylum, according to reports by Mission Local.
The Trump administration has not slowed its pace in dismissing judges, despite the accumulated backlog of 3.5 million immigration cases, according to NBC Bay Area. Furthermore, a memo seen by the AP indicates that up to 600 military attorneys can now be stationed as temporary immigration judges confirmed by The Department of Defense. In contrast to criminal judges who are part of the judiciary, immigration judges operate under the Department of Justice, making them more vulnerable to executive decisions. This has raised considerable debate and led to a lawsuit over the legality of the administration's actions.
